Map - Democratic Republic of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Democratic Republic of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as Congo-Kinshasa and formerly known as Zaire, is a country in Central Africa. By land area, the DRC is the second-largest country in Africa, after Algeria, and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 112 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous officially Francophone country in the world. The national capital and largest city is Kinshasa, which is also the economic center. The country is bordered by the Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania (across Lake Tanganyika), Zambia, Angola, the Cabinda exclave of Angola and the South Atlantic Ocean.

Centered on the Congo Basin, the territory of the DRC was first inhabited by Central African foragers around 90,000 years ago and was reached by the Bantu expansion about 3,000 years ago. In the west, the Kingdom of Kongo ruled around the mouth of the Congo River from the 14th to 19th centuries. In the northeast, center and east, the kingdoms of Azande, Luba, and Lunda ruled from the 16th and 17th centuries to the 19th century. King Leopold II of Belgium formally acquired rights to the Congo territory in 1885 and declared the land his private property, naming it the Congo Free State. From 1885 to 1908, his colonial military forced the local population to produce rubber and committed widespread atrocities. In 1908, Leopold ceded the territory, which thus became a Belgian colony.

Congo achieved independence from Belgium on 30 June 1960 and was immediately confronted by a series of secessionist movements, which culminated in the seizure of power by Mobutu Sese Seko in a 1965 coup d'état. Mobutu renamed the country Zaire in 1971 and imposed a harsh personalist dictatorship until his overthrow in 1997 by the First Congo War. The country then had its name changed back and was confronted by the Second Congo War from 1998 to 2003, which resulted in the deaths of 5.4 million people. The war ended under President Joseph Kabila who governed the country from 2001 to 2019, under whom human rights in the country remained poor and included frequent abuses such as forced disappearances, torture, arbitrary imprisonment and restrictions on civil liberties. Following the 2018 general election, in the country's first peaceful transition of power since independence, Kabila was succeeded as president by Félix Tshisekedi, who has served as president since. Since 2015, the Eastern DR Congo has been the site of an ongoing military conflict in Kivu.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is extremely rich in natural resources but has suffered from political instability, a lack of infrastructure, corruption, and centuries of both commercial and colonial extraction and exploitation, followed by more than 60 years of independence, with little widespread development. Besides the capital Kinshasa, the two next largest cities, Lubumbashi and Mbuji-Mayi, are both mining communities. The DRC's largest export is raw minerals, with China accepting over 50% of its exports in 2019. In 2021, DR Congo's level of human development was ranked 179th out of 191 countries by the Human Development Index. , following two decades of various civil wars and continued internal conflicts, around 600,000 Congolese refugees were still living in neighbouring countries. Two million children risk starvation, and the fighting has displaced 4.5 million people. The country is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, African Union, COMESA, Southern African Development Community, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, and the Economic Community of Central African States.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is named after the Congo River, which flows through the country. The Congo River is the world's deepest river and the world's second-largest river by discharge. The Comité d'études du haut Congo ("Committee for the Study of the Upper Congo"), established by King Leopold II of Belgium in 1876, and the International Association of the Congo, established by him in 1879, were also named after the river.

The Congo River was named by early European sailors after the Kingdom of Kongo and its Bantu inhabitants, the Kongo people, when they encountered them in the 16th century. The word Kongo comes from the Kongo language (also called Kikongo). According to American writer Samuel Henry Nelson: "It is probable that the word 'Kongo' itself implies a public gathering and that it is based on the root konga, 'to gather' (trans[itive])." The modern name of the Kongo people, Bakongo, was introduced in the early 20th century.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been known in the past as, in chronological order, the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, the Republic of the Congo-Léopoldville, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Zaire, before returning to its current name the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

At the time of independence, the country was named the Republic of the Congo-Léopoldville to distinguish it from its neighbour the Republic of the Congo-Brazzaville. With the promulgation of the Luluabourg Constitution on 1 August 1964, the country became the DRC but was renamed to Zaire (a past name for the Congo River) on 27 October 1971 by President Mobutu Sese Seko as part of his Authenticité initiative.

The word Zaire is from a Portuguese adaptation of a Kikongo word nzadi ("river"), a truncation of nzadi o nzere ("river swallowing rivers"). The river was known as Zaire during the 16th and 17th centuries; Congo seems to have replaced Zaire gradually in English usage during the 18th century, and Congo is the preferred English name in 19th-century literature, although references to Zaire as the name used by the natives (i.e. derived from Portuguese usage) remained common.

In 1992, the Sovereign National Conference voted to change the name of the country to the "Democratic Republic of the Congo", but the change was not made. The country's name was later restored by President Laurent-Désiré Kabila when he overthrew Mobutu in 1997. To distinguish it from the neighboring Republic of the Congo, it is sometimes referred to as Congo (Kinshasa) or Congo-Kinshasa. Its name is sometimes also abbreviated as DR Congo and the DROC. 
Currency / Language 
ISO Currency Symbol Significant figures
CDF Congolese franc Fr 2
Neighbourhood - Country  
Map - Democratic Republic of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Map
Map - Democratic Republic of the Congocongo_demrep_rel98.jpg
congo_demrep_rel98.j...
1070x1184
freemapviewer.org
Map - Democratic Republic of the CongoDem_congo_sat.jpg
Dem_congo_sat.jpg
2293x2261
freemapviewer.org
Map - Democratic Republic of the CongoCongo_Dem_Rep_Regions_Map.jpg
Congo_Dem_Rep_Region...
3000x3118
freemapviewer.org
Map - Democratic Republic of the CongoSecond_Congo_War_2001_map_en.png
Second_Congo_War_200...
2990x2848
freemapviewer.org
Map - Democratic Republic of the CongoMONUC_deployments_Dec_2009.jpg
MONUC_deployments_De...
1166x866
freemapviewer.org
Un-congo-kinshasa.pn...
3038x2257
upload.wikimedia.org
zaire_map.jpg
1817x1800
www.lib.utexas.edu
detailed_relief_map_...
1817x1800
www.vidiani.com
political-map-of-Con...
1412x1683
www.ezilon.com
road-map-of-Congo.gi...
1412x1663
www.ezilon.com
Congo-physical-map.g...
1412x1576
www.ezilon.com
political-map-of-D-R...
1412x1451
www.ezilon.com
D-R-of-Congo-physica...
1399x1451
www.ezilon.com
zaire_e_79.jpg
1274x1558
www.lib.utexas.edu
Zaire-Eastern-Region...
1274x1558
mappery.com
D-R-of-Congo-road-ma...
1412x1395
www.ezilon.com
Congo_Kinshasa_Topog...
1437x1298
upload.wikimedia.org
map-congo-basin-1935...
1500x1104
www.philatelicdataba...
Niger-Congo_map_with...
1207x1139
upload.wikimedia.org
map-belgian-congo.jp...
1024x1319
www.stephenhicks.org
congomap2.gif
1280x997
www.awf.org
map-congo.jpg
994x1243
www.geographicguide....
congo_rel90.jpg
1034x1194
www.lib.utexas.edu
congo-map-030600-un....
1200x936
www.globalsecurity.o...
Democratic-Republic-...
1210x927
mappery.com